Sitcoms may not be everyone’s favorite genre of television. One thing that is for sure though, sitcoms are still hugely popular. Some may even argue that the 1990’s is when the sitcom genre as a whole peaked. We had mega-popular shows like Seinfeld, and Friends. Other popular shows include “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, “Boy Meets World”, “Frasier”, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”, “Home Improvement” and of course many others!
One thing that’s worth noting about all of those 90’s TV series’ that were mentioned, is that they all have pretty well-established main characters. Looking at “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, Will Smith is the main character, in “Home Improvement” it’s Tim Allen, “Seinfeld” has Jerry Seinfeld and so on. All these characters received the most screen time by far. In addition to the screen time, the main character also is the focus of the majority of, if not all of the episode and season themes of the series. The story is typically told through the perspective of the main character and the other characters have to react to how he or she deals with the world.
What about “Friends”?
It’s quite interesting when a show deviates from this story design. The main character is typically a pretty straight forward concept. There is one 90’s sitcom in particular that many believe contains zero main characters. The show “Friends” is seemingly told through the perspective of 6 friends simultaneously throughout the entirety of the series. But that can’t be true, all 6 characters are the main character? Truly there has to be one person whose story takes center stage above the rest. Even if the show focuses on 6 different people surely there is one or maybe two main characters at minimum. In this story I will take a deep dive into each character in the series to conclude if “Friends” has one definitive main character or if all 6 are truly the main character.
Ross
David Schwimmer during The Museum Of Television & Radio To Honor CBS News’s Dan Rather And Friends Producing Team at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, United States.
Ross is in my opinion, one of the frontrunners for potentially being labeled the main character in the series. Throughout the entirety of season 1 and 2, we take extremely deep looks into his marriage that falls apart with Carol, their baby Ben and his feelings of love towards Rachael. While the series of course focuses on him in later seasons as well. Some of those key themes include his relationship with Emily and eventual wedding, where of course he famously says the wrong name at the altar (oops). The show also focuses on his career immensely and shows the progression over the course of the series and even the relationship he has with Charlie (a fellow paleontologist) later on in the series. Ultimately there is a strong case to be had for Ross being considered the main character due to there being so many plotlines involving him. Also because several plot lines hinge on how he may or may not feel about something involving the group.
Rachael
Rachael is another contender for the true main character of the show. The show literally starts off with her walking into Central Perk and finding the friend group, after walking out on her own wedding. Similar to Ross, the first few seasons really shine a light on Rachael discovering who she as an independent woman. Or at least mostly independent woman. As the series goes on her career develops tremendously, her relationship with Ross is a key focal point along with the eventual birth of her and Ross’s baby Emma. One could make a decent case that Rachael is every bit as much a main character as Ross is.
Jennifer Aniston winner for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, “Friends”, at the 54th Annual Emmy Awards (Photo by Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage)
Chandler
Matthew Perry during The Museum Of Television & Radio To Honor CBS News’s Dan Rather And Friends Producing Team at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, United States.
Chandler is also main character material. He gets all the same attention and backstory as the other characters. He has stronger ties than Phoebe and Joey since he knew Monica, Ross and Rachael since High School. We see Chandler’s career develop; he eventually matures in his relationships by getting over his fear of commitment. Of course, he marries Monica and joins her on her journey of becoming a parent and owning a house outside the city. I think the only thing that hinders his case for the main character is that I think he gets used a little too often simply for comedic relief in episodes. While there’s no rule book that says a main character can’t be funny, there are countless scenes that seem to just be waiting for Chandler to come in for a joke that was setup for him. It just seems the show relies on him for comedic relief more than being the main character at times.
Joey
Matt LeBlanc during The Museum of Television and Radio Honors CBS News’s Dan Rather and “Friends” Producing Team – Inside at Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Joey is yet another character that has his career, love life and personal growth closely followed over the course of the series. For a couple of reasons however, it feels like he has the weakest case for being labeled as the main character. We see him grow as an actor and we see him mature as a person (even enough for Rachael to consider dating him long term). One thing we do miss from him is the ties to the group prior to the show beginning. Monica, Ross, Rachael and Chandler all knew each other, and they end up getting displayed more like centerpieces compared to Joey. Another reason going against Joey, is the lack of depth in his backstory, while Phoebe has a complex family plotline, Joey has food.
Phoebe
FRIENDS — Pictured: Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe suffers from the same thing as Joey does, which is not knowing the rest of the group prior to the show starting. One thing Phoebe has that Joey lacks is a consistently compelling plot line involving her family. We encounter Phoebe’s twin sister Ursula countless times, we discover her mom killed herself at a young age, her father is still alive and that her brother is around and wants to be a part of her life. Her brother ends up playing a fairly large role in the series, having Phoebe act as a surrogate for him and his fiancé which ends up resulting in triplets! If that wasn’t enough there is even a fan theory that the whole show is a made-up story inside Phoebe’s imagination.
Monica
Considering the rest of these characters have somewhat similar cases for the title of main character, Monica is the closest to the true thing. While the show does a remarkable job of splitting focus in 6 different directions as far as storylines go with all the characters, Monica stands alone. If you think about it, the show really can’t happen without her.
Yes, the show starts with Rachael walking into Central Perk, however nothing matters if Monica doesn’t act on it. Monica is the reason Rachael gets introduced to the group because they were high school friends. She’s also the reason Rachael sticks around, because she ends up offering her a place to live. Monica even plays a key role in getting Ross and Rachael together too! When the idea of Ross is first presented to Rachael, she is kind of put off by the idea of him, since he was such a geek in High School. It was Monica who convinced her to give him a shot.
Beyond providing the support for the entire show to occur, Monica is focused on in the same ways as everyone else. We follow her love life, her career evolution and her progression into marriage and becoming a mother. But on top of those things, her role as the host really cements her as a main character if there has to be one. Since the vast majority of scenes that happen at an apartment take place at hers. If “Friends” has a main character Monica is the one. However the show really does an excellent job of making the story about them all!
LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 9: American actress Courteney Cox of the television comedy, Friend’s poses for a portrait before an NBC Press Tour Party on January 9, 1995 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ron Davis/Getty Images)
